Rex, Doctor, Commander
by LucianSalesia
Summary: Just a snippet of what really could've been behind that drastic change of character.


Okay, just watched the film for the third time^^ and thought this was much more logical, than Rex just suddenly having a change of heart because of seeing the nanomites and getting caught up in an explosion.

Disclaimer: Yeah, nothing of G.I. Joe is mine, it all belongs to someone else. I don't make any money from this, it's just for fun^^

Spoiler!: For the Film, obviously^^

**Rex**

"Go go go go!"

Heat. Bright sunlight burning in the eyes. Sand that got everywhere, even inside his lungs. Gunfire everywhere, beside him, above him, in front of him, behind him, sometimes even from under him. It was frightening. Deafening.

"Two o'clock GO!"

"Let's move! Go"

Moving through the streets at break neck speed, trying not to be caught in the enemy fire. Ducking behind Duke, trying not to fall over his own feet. Or the feet of one of the other soldiers. His pulse was running so high it was a constant humm in his ears.

"In the alley! "

"You see them?"

"Two more on the left!"

"Get down!"

Ducking behind a truck in front of the building he has to get in, to steal the research files of an illegal experiment. Why only he could do that and no-one else was beyond him, because most should be able to download a few files, especially with the right kind of tools. They didn't really need his expertice as a scientist, a genius. Why should they risk it? He has asked himself that since he descended into this hell of bullets, explosions and death.

"Double Bubble? It always helps me. Yeah, hey? You good?"

"Yeah?", he answers, not quite sure what else to answer. His mission is nearly over, just get inside this building and get out in time, that's it. Then he can go home to Ana, to his sister and to his quiet research. And to the person that had captured his interest for the last month, but he hadn't been brave enough to ask. He had just watched her, everyday as he drank his coffee in the diner down the street, trying to bring up the courage to speak to her. The bubble gum is surreal and sweet in his mouth and seems to grow too big in his dry mouth.

"Yeah."

"All right, Mr. Science Officer, you're up, okay? You don't find it in four minutes, you get out of there. That house will not be there in five. I already called for the air strike. Come on! Here we go"

"I got you! Gogogogo!", he's running, ducking, running. Gunfire, gunfire, gunfire. Explosions and dirt.

"Oh, crap!", just a few more steps.

_-.-.-.-.-.-.-_

_...subject number 23_

_This will only hurt a little._

_What comes next more so. _

Rex stares at the monitor in horrified fascination. It's like on of those horror/sci-fi-movies were the alien eats itself out of a body and you just can't seem to look away from it.

_Remember, science requires sacrifice._

He hears a noise and whirls around.

"It's beautiful isn't it?"

Weapon high and just slightly shaking, he is military, goddammit!

"Stay were you are!"

"Are you going to shoot me?"

Both of the scientist hands are empty, he lowers the weapon slowly. His eyes fall back to the horrifying pictures on the screen, his scientific mind going over all the symptoms showing and over all possibilities.

"These aren't chemical or nuclear, are they?" He knows he's nearly got it, something tickling at the back of his mind.

"No. They're something much much better." the scientist is more or less forgotten, no real danger, he has to get this and has to get out of here, still captured he has to admire the raw horror of this weapon.

"It is beautiful." Then he understands what it is. Of course! Oh, the possibilities!

"Nanomites. It's beyond..." everything! He fumbles for the stick, jotting it into the computer, short-cutting any security on the damn thing in seconds.

"It's light-years ahead of what anyone else is doing in the field." it's the answer to so many problems, medical and military.

_Proximity alert. Aerial attack imminent. All personnel to the bunker._

He was watching the progress bar slowly filling itself. The thing always reminded him of an advertisement he had seen years ago. He didn't remember exactly what for, probably DSL.

"Come on. Come on! What? What are you doing? Don't close that. Don't..." the scientist he nearly had forgotten in his frantic thoughts about getting the files and then getting out of here, before the bombs fell, had sneaked along behind him and was closing the heavy door that was leading into the room, the only door, that led outside. Behind him the computer beeps and tells him that the download is complete. In reflex he pulls out the Stick and clutches it in his panic.

"If we live, I'll show you everything." the voice of the other man eery and far too calm. This isn't right, he has to get out of here, he has to get back to Duke, to Ana, his only family left. He couldn't do this to her, not even in the name of science. Especially not in the name of science. And he wanted that chance. He wanted the chance to get together enough courage to talk to that girl instead of just smiling shyly and then hiding behind his papers and his coffee. He turned but the last thing he remembers before darkness is flying and heat and incredible pain and a very hard and numbing and piercing contact with the wall? The floor? Just darkness is left for a long time after that.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Voices. More like mumbles, dull and incomprehensible. It is a while before the mumbles develop into words, and another while before the words begin to make sense.

"- his condition is critical. His lungs have sustained a lot of damage through the fire and smoke. Not to speak of the skin." He was injured? But he was alive. He would get better, he would get home.

"Doctor Mindbender is in a worse condition, though conscious, if you can call his state of mind conscious, he _will_ die in the next three hours, that I can guarantee. Whereas, we can save this boy, barely and his brainwaves are over the top. He would be perfect." What were they talking about, where was he? Wasn't he in a hospital? What was happening? He knew the next voice, he had heard it before, the strong Scottish accent, the cold demeanor of that voice.

"Then do it, copy the mind of the good doctor into this man, make sure it is the dominant mind." foot steps, a whirring sound, clothing. He felt strangely numb, outside of his body. Though that changed soon enough.

"This will only hurt a little." someone said in a calm, sweet and oh, so disturbing voice. What was happening? A sting at the back of his skull, then uncomfortable pressure as something was pressed under his skin, into his spine. "What comes next, more so." And the man was right, the next thing he knew, was agony. And after what seemed like hours, blissful darkness descended on him. Darkness that lasted even longer than the one after the explosion.

A darkness that only lifted to show glimpses of a world he did not understand. Glimpses of his sister with dark hair, of his hands covered with scars, of syringes and cruel thoughts. Thoughts that reminded him of the cruel and soft voice of the scientist in that bunker. Thoughts that were spoken with his voice, just that his voice had never sounded that unfamiliar as in that glimpses. Sometimes he tried to press against the darkness, tried to get out of it, into the real world. The world where his Ana will be happily married to Duke, and not this strange glimpse-world where a man stood by her dark-headed side, that he had never seen before. Where she was so clearly unhappy. He tried to wake up from this strange, strange place, but every time he tries there is excruciating pain.

Everytime he tries he looses more of his self. He knows it, because he can't remember his childhood anymore, he doesn't know any of his friends from high school, had he any friends? It grows blurry and more vague with every time that he tries to escape from this nightmare, and he does not know what is worse, the pain, or the knowledge that his mind, his _mind_ was slowly dissolving. He wanted to wake up and knew that he couldn't, because when he would reach the surface, _if_ he would reach it, he wouldn't be there. He would be erased by whatever had captured him in this oppressing darkness in his own body. So he waited.

He waited...

Waited...

...

..

.

**End**

Tell me what you think^^


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